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I have a friend with dementia. Recently the DMV issued him a letter that he is no longer allowed to drive. The problem is he still has the keys to the cars, so at anytime could just take off. His caregivers and I trying to make the cars unable to start with out pulling off a battery cable.
His cars are 2003 Chevy Tahoe and a 2017 Honda Pilot. Any ideas are welcome
Most newer cars have a main relay and/or a fuel pump relay. Find that and take the relay out of its socket, put it somewhere you can keep up with it but your demented friend can't.
BTW this is a good way to theft-proof your car if you have to park in a dodgy area - pull your fuel pump relay and put it in your pocket. If you are like me and have spare parts in the glove box or otherwise in the car, lock those up too.
Without the keys, how will he start the car? If dementia relates to loss of memory, remove the keys?
You'd be surprised. When my grandfather had a series of 'mini strokes'.. The one thing that he would about fight over was driving. We had to go out there and stop him several times. Someone elderly who develops cognitive issues.. Driving is a HUGE trigger for them, it seems. and he'd wind up with the keys no matter where they were hidden.
I go with whoever mentioned the Fuel Pump Relay. Either that or the fuse.. Sometimes there's an ignition fuse in the inside fusebox.
I'd probably go with something you didn't have to go under the hood for, personally. But..
Yes, potato in exhaust pipe will work. But easily defeated when he figures out what you did. I once left my car for two weeks in a motel parking lot near JFK, and to be on the safe side, I pulled the rotor out of the distributor (remember those?) and put it in the glove compartment.
Yes, potato in exhaust pipe will work. But easily defeated when he figures out what you did. I once left my car for two weeks in a motel parking lot near JFK, and to be on the safe side, I pulled the rotor out of the distributor (remember those?) and put it in the glove compartment.
Yeah, for older cars, the distributor rotor, for newer cars, either a main or fuel pump relay. Easily reversed, won't damage anything (well, pulling the rotor won't do a solid state ignition any good if some numbskull cranks and cranks on that open high voltage circuit). So on say 80's and 90's cars that have FI but still have a distributor, I would pull a relay by preference. I am not aware of any relays that it takes tools to pull, but in some cases you need at least a screwdriver or maybe a nut driver to get at the distributor rotor.
I’d make sure to do these things. My grandpa was in his lower 80’s had dementia and still had a license in Canada. (They test maybe yearly at certain age and it was before his dementia kicked in) He drove away in early evening from Thunder Bay without my grandma and drove to Winnipeg for some odd reason. Ran out of gas (he’d never do that before) and walked out in middle of road to flag down a semi at 3 am, semi hit him and his parked car. Please do everything you can to not have something like this happen to you.
Maybe disconnect the brake light switch
My wife's 2004 Ford would not start and I found it had a loose /bad connector right at the brake pedal so that when you step on the brakes the brake lights would not come on.
AND
I guess for safety the car would not start with no brakes.
Kind of a hassle to get under the dash to that connector though maybe there is a fuse that would do the same thing.
Went through Dementia with my Mom, she had already stopped driving due to Parkinsons.
Nice job watching out for his safety, good luck.
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